EIGHTH LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES FROM MARINA ABRAMOVIC

Futurists, Cubists, Dadaists, Surrealists, and Purists all had one thing in common: they all, as individual artists or as a movement, have written their intentions and purposes in the form of artistic texts. An art manifesto is a public declaration of vision and motives. Marina Abramovic’s eighth and final lecture focused on documents of this nature.

"I really want you to be here and now. Let your own breath help you. Through breathing you can kill someone or you can fall in love."

On Thursday, April 30th, Abramovic shared the SESC auditorium stage with the performance collective Grupo EmpreZa, who have been performing throughout the past two months as part of MAI Presents. Marina started off the lecture by splitting the audience in half: one group would read Grupo EmpreZa’s manifesto and the second half would read her own manifesto.

The reading of Grupo EmpreZa’s manifesto was immediately followed by a Q&A session. EmpreZa’s artists read their manifesto in unison, each one of them using a megaphone.

Abramovic’s manifesto, marked by strong and succinct sentences, was read by the audience in Brazilian portuguese. Much of the audience was already familiar with the text, but by having the public engaged and saying the following statements out loud, the words became much more powerful.

An artist’s conduct in his life:

"An artist shouldn't make himself an idol"

An artist’s relation to the erotic:

"An artist should develop an erotic point of view of the world. An artist should be erotic."

An artist’s relationship with transparency:

"An artist should give and receive at the same time."

An artist’s relation to silence:

"An artist should understand the silence."

An artist’s relation to inspiration:

"The artist is universe."

The final lecture ended at 10pm. As the applause subsided, Abramovic invited the public to have a big group hug.

Terra Comunal - MAI is free and open to the public until May 10, 2015 @SESC Pompeia, São Paulo - Brazil.